Friday, September 12, 2008

Hunker hunker burnin' love

I've never been a fan of Houston. The climate (muggy), the traffic (siege-like), the crime (post-apocalyptic), and even the people (by and large disconnected from the rest of the state) have always caused me to have a general distaste for that city. Oh, I know it's a necessary town down there on the cesspool region of the Gulf, sort of like certain orifices on one's body are necessary for divulging wastes. But it's not my preferred city.

But I have to admit a certain admiration for their boldness in their decision to "stare Ike down," and "hunker down" through the storm. In this day and age of post-Katrina over-reaction and finger-pointing over who's to blame for what are basically uncontrollable acts of weather, it's a bit refreshing to hear a city say,"Yeah, we're a Gulf city. We get hurricanes. What of it?"

Hope that all works out for you, guys. Seriously, and with no snark: good luck.

I'm glad that the Powers That Be realized that absent the possibility of storm surge, people are safer in their homes than they are while stranded in gridlock on an interstate.

People in low-lying areas need to evacuate well before the storm arrives. It should be done in an orderly fashion with a prioritization of what to take and what to leave.

I grew up in Tampa Bay and our neighborhood was all of five feet above sea level, less at a high tide. A particularly high tide would back seawater up from the storm drains into the gutters. The neighborhood (an artificial barrier island) also had exactly two points of entry/exit to the rest of the city. Evacuations were something that we took seriously.

I was watching CNN earlier tnad they were discussing the 911 calls that were coming in as the eye wall was crossing Galveston for the first time.

"Please come and get me, Mr. First Responder!"

The 911 operators had to remind these folks that they had been warned hours ago that they would be on their own once the storm arrived. Some had even been told to write their name and SSN on the body in black marker to make post-mortem identification easier. They still decided to "ride it out." I hope they learned something from the ride.

At this time there are no reported deaths in Galveston. That's good, but I hope people don't use that as a justification to ignore evac orders next time.

You may not know this...My Mother and her mother are/were NATIVE Houstonians. Not a lot of THAT breed around anymore.

My Brother and two nieces who live on the West side are safe and sound, though without power. The [adult] girls went to stay with Daddy b/c he has Coleman lanterns and a Coleman stove, lots of bottled water and canned food. He filled both bathtubs with water, too, just in case.

His house is paid off and though it IS insured, he wasn't willing to abandon it to the tender mercies of strangers...or to leave his Teacher and Dental Hygenist daughters behind or stranded in the evac gridlock. So, between "hunting tools" and sidearms they are defended against human predators. And he had the foresight to prepare for power and water outages.

The Center of the city is 60 miles inland and he is another 15 miles west of there. I understand why he stayed. And I'm sure some of the others of Houston Metro's SIX million who stayed had good reasons for staying...I'm just sayin'Not EVERYone who lives there is an asshole.